Before someone brings up Fahrenheit nonsense, water boiling at 212° and freezing at 32° is every bit as arbitrary as the current system and it wouldn't help clarifying it at all. There's a reason Celsius has substituted the Fahrenheit scale everywhere else

Before someone brings up Fahrenheit nonsense, water boiling at 212° and freezing at 32° is every bit as arbitrary as the current system and it wouldn't help clarifying it at all. There's a reason Celsius has substituted the Fahrenheit scale everywhere else

If we're interested in reducing arbitrariness, then it seems like using a uint16 in Kelvin is the best. However, I am unsure if any temperatures in DF actually need to be below absolute zero (in which case an unsigned Kelvin value wouldn't work), and I will admit that it is still probably easier to find physical values in Celsius than Kelvin.

As was stated by Toady?, magically cold objects could suck more energy out of the normal-temp environment than they could at scientifically possible temps, so he has possible temp values of sub-|0| to simulate this.

As was stated by Toady?, magically cold objects could suck more energy out of the normal-temp environment than they could at scientifically possible temps, so he has possible temp values of sub-|0| to simulate this.

Celsius Defiantly wins... I am kinda concerned though its temperature gradients are a bit rough....

the difference between 37 and 38 are enough to damage some organisms.. maybe we should multiply it by 10.

I can't help but feel that celsius would be the dumbest of the options. A uint for Kelvin would be nice (or a float, or uint for 10ths of a kelvin or whatever). Or Farenheit, which is more familiar to most Americans. As the game is in English, there's more potential players familiar with that scale. Plus, I'm selfish and don't like Celsius for anything except talking about water.

Though when I think about it more I'd actually like the game not to tell me the exact temperature but rather give me the sort of information my dwarves or adventurers would be likely to have - like "freezing cold" or "hot" or something like that.

I can't help but feel that celsius would be the dumbest of the options. A uint for Kelvin would be nice (or a float, or uint for 10ths of a kelvin or whatever). Or Farenheit, which is more familiar to most Americans. As the game is in English, there's more potential players familiar with that scale. Plus, I'm selfish and don't like Celsius for anything except talking about water.

BAD BAD BAD! The US's denial of the SI system to cling to the obsolete English system is one reason most of the world thinks the US is stupid. America must abandon the English system, lest it fall into being a minor country of little importance. And really, English is taught everwhere. Making the game use Fahrenheit for modding would hurt more people than it would help.

@Appelgren: We're talking about modding here and the actual values. The game interface can continue the way it is.

As the game is in English, there's more potential players familiar with that scale.

That's a logical fallacy. Whether we speak the language has nothing to do with whether the rest of the world has even cursory familiarity with the archaic system. Only you and a few other small backwards nations still cling to it, even the Brits have adopted Celsius for common use

Though when I think about it more I'd actually like the game not to tell me the exact temperature but rather give me the sort of information my dwarves or adventurers would be likely to have - like "freezing cold" or "hot" or something like that.

That's what it will do anyway. The question is about the unit used in the raws. Celsius and Fahrenheit are both arbitrary and annoying to convert to for their respective users, but at least Celsius has the virture of offering an easy to remember point of reference (freezing and boiling water) in addition to be readily convertable to Kelvin, if need be.